Colon Cancer Hits Younger Adults Especially Hard, Study Finds

Risk of advanced disease, death greater than for middle-aged patients.

Younger adults with colorectal cancer that has spread (metastasized) to other areas of the body have a higher risk of disease progression and death than middle-aged patients, a new study finds.

Colorectal cancer in elderly patients is also more aggressive than it is in the middle-aged, the study says.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 20,000 patients who took part in 24 phase 3 clinical trials for colorectal cancer. Patients younger than 40 years old were 30 percent more likely to die from their disease than 57-year-old patients. And compared to 61-year-olds, patients younger than 40 had a 28 percent higher risk of their disease progressing and spreading during a one-year follow-up.

The investigators also found that the oldest patients had a 72 percent higher risk of death and a 19 percent higher risk of their cancer spreading than patients who were ages 57 and 61, according to the study, which was presented Sunday at the 2013 European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam.

Further research is needed to determine why colorectal cancer in younger patients appears to be more aggressive, said study author Dr. Christopher Lieu, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado.

“Although colorectal cancer occurs in only 4.6 percent of patients who are younger than 50, the incidence of the disease has been increasing at a rate of 1.5 percent per year from 1992 to 2005 in this age group,” he said in a European CanCer Organization (ECCO) news release.

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Source: Everyday Health, shared via Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research